8 Great Back-to-School Apps

A new school year is just around the corner, and though it can be tough to get back into that educational groove, there are plenty of apps available for iPhone and iPod to help make learning easier. Whether you’re the parent of a pre-schooler or you're a college student preparing for a tough senior year, you’ll find something useful here. We’ve rounded up the best apps available to get the most educational bang for your buck.

Learning to spell isn’t easy, but Endless Alphabet ($6.99, universal) makes it fun. The app is full of interactive lessons to help young kids spell a variety of words, some of which are surprisingly long, like “gargantuan” and “multiply.” Each word in the app is accompanied by a short animation starring adorable cartoon creatures. The whole thing has a veneer of polish, and best of all, it actually works. The other apps in the series are also worth checking out, including Endless Reader and Endless Numbers.

Homer: Reading & Educational Games (free, iPad) is packed full of reading games designed for children ages three to six. Homer (no relation to The Simpsons) is a cartoon pigeon who guides children through a vast array of games and read-along stories to help improve their skills and comprehension. It even lets kids communicate with parent-approved contacts via email — so grandma and grandpa can support your child’s lessons from afar.

DragonBox Algebra 5+ ($5.99, universal) accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of teaching algebra to children as young as 5 (there’s also a version made for kids aged 12 and up). It works by starting with a shape-manipulating game that’s fairly easy to grasp. As a child plays, the shapes are gradually replaced with numbers and symbols, but the gameplay remains the same. It’s a cleverly designed app that gives kids a head start on tricky math concepts.

The makers of myHomework Student Planner (free, universal) know that being a good student requires more than just learning the material. You also have to juggle your responsibilities and prioritize your workload. To keep it all straight, you could scribble in an old-fashioned planner, or use this app that makes paper planners obsolete. This app keeps track of everything from your homework and tests to projects and class times. With a $4.99 in-app purchase, it also lets you set reminders and syncs between your iPhone, iPad, and the web.

The tagline for Khan Academy (free, universal) is that it “allows you to learn almost anything for free.” It sounds like an overblown marketing statement, but in this case it’s actually true. The app and corresponding website offer an enormous wealth of educational videos geared toward K - 12 students, covering everything from the sciences to the humanities in wonderful detail. So whether your child got a C in biology, or you’re a student struggling with an algebra formula, Khan Academy has a video to help.

Google’s great for finding facts, but it's not so hot at manipulating sets of data. WolframAlpha ($2.99, universal) is here to help. This “computational knowledge engine” can tap into all kinds of reliable data sets and splice the info any way you want. A useful hint: Siri can access WolframAlpha and relay the information even if you don't have the app installed.

MindNode ($9.99, universal) is a “mind mapping” app that helps you turn a jumble of ideas into organized groups and sub-groups that makes sense together. For instance, let’s say you have to write a book report, but you have no idea where to start. In MindNode, you can begin typing every idea that pops into your head. Once you see patterns begin to emerge, you can re-arrange them with the swipe of a finger, and delete the ones that don’t fit. The app can turn the finished “mind map” into an outline, at which point writing the paper becomes a whole lot easier.

Studying for the SATs can be a drag, but SAT Up (free, universal) makes it easy. This best-in-class app sports over 3,000 practice questions written by SAT prep tutors. Each question comes with a detailed solution to steer you in the right direction if you get one wrong. The app also offers training sessions that adapt to your strengths and weaknesses, graphs that chart your progress over time, and vocabulary games to help you learn the difference between perspicacious and polemical.

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